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A History of The Hole:"From The Hole to the Whole World "By Tom Tanner, Vice President of AcademicsHow do you say goodbye to a building . . . especially when that building is more than a building,and the goodbye is not really a goodbye? How do you bid adieu to a dormitory . . . a dormitorythat is the closest thing we’ve ever had around here to a fraternity . . . a fraternity that boasts thelikes of our own J.K. Jones, Neal Windham, Steve Collins, and many others now on staff here .. . a fraternity that boasts Bible college presidents, academic deans, countless ministers andmissionaries, and an untold number of other Christian leaders in many other vocations?Timothy Hall as we have known it since 1951Is there a fitting farewell for this tabernacle we call Timothy Hall, or more affectionately TheHole? I use the term tabernacle advisedly but, I think, appropriately. While the Old Testamenttabernacle served a single purpose but moved to many places, this tabernacle we call TimothyHall has sat in only one place but has served many purposes. Here is its history:Chapter 1 I call “The Hole for The Whole Campus.” On June 1, 1951, Timothy Hall was dedicated as the main administration/classroom/faculty/librarybuilding. It was simply called, for lack of a better term, the campus. In fact, for awhile The Whole Campus was housed in The Hole. It was built for lessthan $90,000, almost all of it coming from small gifts from churches and individuals. The school’s first academic dean, Charles Mills, was the dedicatoryspeaker on that June day in 1951. The school was 7 years old when the building we call Timothy Hall was occupied that fall for the first time. TheHole—The Whole Campus—had room for 3 administrators, 12 faculty, 10 classrooms, and a library with 7,000 volumes. The Hole remained virtuallyThe Whole Campus for nearly a decade, with only the cafeteria/gym and Harmony Hall complementing it.An entire generation of alumni from the 1950s know Timothy Hall only as “the campus,” along with the cafeteria/gym and Harmony Hall. They studiedin that building; they went to class in that building; they met with their professors in that building; many met their future spouses in that building. Theywatched their little student body grow that decade from 250 to nearly 500 students in the building we now call The Hole, but which back then wasvirtually The Whole Campus. That brings us to 1960 when this tabernacle we call Timothy Hall moved to a new purpose.Chapter 2 in the history of The Hole I call “The Hole for the Whole Seminary.” The Hole ceased to be The Whole Campus when a new administrationbuilding was built in 1960. We still call that 1960 building the Administration building—47 years later. When the then new Administration buildingwas dedicated on October 23, 1960, The Hole moved from being The Whole Campus to becoming instead The Whole Seminary. I say that because inthe Fall of 1960 the Seminary took over the building, lock, stock, and barrel. It became the Seminary building. From campus home to seminary home,Timothy Hall was on the move again. Our campus newsletter, The Restorer, records that 3,000 people from all over the Midwest attended there-dedication of The Hole as The Whole Seminary, along with the new Administration building. The Seminary called The Hole home for 5 years from1960 to 1965. When the Seminary moved there in 1960, it had 51 students and 7 faculty and plenty of room to grow. And grow it did. By 1965,Lincoln Christian Seminary had doubled in size to more than 100 students and nearly a dozen faculty. The Hole was just too small to house The WholeSeminary any more. So a new Seminary building was built in 1965 and named Restoration Hall. That brings me to Chapter 3.Chapter 3 I call “The Hole for the Holers.” What we now call The Hole didn’t become totally a men’s residence until August of 1965—42 years ago(though some argue it was 1964). That’s when The Whole Seminary building was remodeled as Timothy Hall, the College’s very first men’s residencehall. Of course, it still wasn’t The Hole. In fact, this new men’s dorm wasn’t even supposed to becalled Timothy Hall. If you read The Restorer that spring (the February 28, 1966, issue), you willsee a diagram of what we now call Timothy Hall with another name on it. It was actually plannedto be called Berea Hall, but for some unknown reason the name Timothy Hall won out.I don’t remember how many years later it was that “The Name” became official and public. Ialways date it to a sermon preached in this chapel many years ago. We were having a sermon seriesthat year on the King James Version of I Peter 1:15 “Be ye holy.” Lynn Hiernonymus was thechapel speaker that day. We used to have a wooden sign right in front of the chapel that had thechapel theme for the year painted on it. I remember quite vividly Dr. Hieronymus stepping outfrom behind the pulpit as he began his message. He walked over to the sign and flipped over alittle white sheet of paper with 3 letters on it that replaced the last letter on the sign. As he didArtists conceptual for the renovated TimothyCenter for Global Ministryso, the whole chapel erupted. Dr. Hieronymus then read the new sign. It simply said, “Be ye holers.” Ever since, we have had probably the only Biblecollege fraternity in the history of Bible colleges. We were Holers.But all good things must come—not to an end but to a transition. And today, too, we also mark a transition in the history of The Hole. The tabernaclewe call Timothy is about to move as we announce a new name and a new chapter in the history of The Hole.Chapter 4, the next chapter but not the last, I call “The Hole for the Whole World.” Timothy Hall is about to reclaim its youth. This building beganas The Whole Campus. Then it became The Whole Seminary. For the last 39 years, it has been known simply as The Hole for The Holers. But we areabout to turn this tabernacle into a place of worship and witness whose light will be seen around the whole world. Starting this fall, our goal is for TheHole to house our Christian Ministries Field, including our ministries and missions programs, along with some other areas. Henceforth, it will beknown as The Timothy Center for Global Ministry. The history of The Hole will not die, but will be reborn. The legacy will live on in new andmarvelous ways.14